U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Carson have been experimenting with a new command and control system that promises to merge weapons, surveillance drones and AI into a networked war machine.
The next generation command and control system, NGC2, is designed as a substantial upgrade over the current system and aims to prepare the Army for a potential future difficult fight against a technologically sophisticated enemy.
The Army says command and control must be modernized “for large-scale combat operations against near-peer adversaries.” The service’s Command, Control, Communications and Network Program Executive Office says that “current mission command systems are not sufficiently mobile, intuitive, or sufficiently survivable to easily overcome today’s threat, changes in the nature of warfare, and the pace of technology.”
This is where NGC2 comes into play.
Last week, the Army completed its second Ivy Sting test exercise and expanded how Soldiers use the new NGC2. While the first round focused on the basics, the final event was significantly more complicated.
“Now we’ve increased the complexity,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, commanding general of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, told reporters during a media roundtable. The tests allowed the Army to connect multiple artillery pieces to more data sources.
The military’s current command and control systems – networks used to coordinate combat actions, from communications to the employment of troops and weapons – are often self-contained and inconsistent systems across the service. The Army’s mission now is to standardize command and control across the service.
The first Ivy Sting exercise took place in September and the second last week. Ivy Sting 3 takes place in December. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Jacob Cruz
Moving away from increasingly outdated command and control systems and processes to NGC2, the Army says, allows Soldiers to move faster into combat. During Ivy Sting 1, Soldiers connected an M777 howitzer to the command to make fire control decisions, operational as soon as the gun was in place. In the past this could take over an hour.
During the second round of testing, they placed three artillery pieces and connected them in 10 minutes or less. Lt. Col. Dana Lafarier, divisional artillery battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 77th Artillery Regiment, said Soldiers are also dispersing weapons, supported by enhanced command and control, to further increase survivability. Having the artillery spread across different locations means that an enemy would have a harder time taking them all out.
“All of this,” Lafarier explained, “reduces the cognitive load on Soldiers. So they’re not thinking about how to configure and/or troubleshoot existing equipment. They’re actually thinking about their job and the task at hand.”
Ivy Sting 2 included six command and control nodes, or systems from which commanders can make decisions and control fires and other weapons.
During testing, the drones assessed target and combat damage, with mid-range reconnaissance drones flying for approximately 30 to 40 minutes per flight, with wind and other environmental conditions impacting their use.
Ellis said drone feeds easily integrate into NGC2. Once a drone connects, the feeds are transferred to the cloud and, from there, artificial intelligence models can help speed up target identification.
AI features speed up the targeting process and help navigate ISR data. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Jacob Cruz
“It’s an ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] “The flows are coming back, and the AI model helps overcome them,” he explained. As more feeds come in, AI will help speed up the targeting process. Officials said they are fine-tuning the AI based on terrain and environmental factors.
By adding more drones at greater ranges, the Army is looking to “put a little more strain on the system,” Ellis said, adding that drones “have really allowed us to kind of adjust our targeting process.”
NGC2 marks a departure from the way the military has conducted command and control and the technologies it has long relied on. It is more focused on software systems and large amounts of data that can be accessed quickly for faster decision making.
Last July, Anduril and a team of suppliers including Palantir won the nearly $100 million contract for NGC2, and since then the industry and service partners have built a prototype with the Army’s 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson. Future Ivy Sting exercises will continue to increase the complexity of testing with NGC2 before culminating with a large exercise in May 2026. Command and control must be ready for real combat, which involves many systems working together.
Army officials said the tests revealed what they would like to improve with NGC2, including deconfliction of airspace, more data and computing power, and better AI integration. Next year, they will enter contested electromagnetic environments, with tests conducted in May replicating enemy cyber and electronic warfare capabilities.
The iterative design process also incorporates Soldier feedback. “The Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division are really excited about this,” Ellis said. “This is an opportunity for them to shape the future of the military.”
